Most people have probably done this at least once in their lives.. You go to a restaurant and order a meal. The waitress is nice, comes over, gets your drinks, takes your order, checks up on you, refills, what not, brings out the meal, and woah, something is wrong, it is cold, bad, just something. But what do you end up doing? Getting mad and blaming the waitress. You might not give her any tip at the end of the meal, because you are mad about the mishap with the food.
But then you start to think about it, and you look back and realize that hey, it wasn’t the waitress who caused the issue, it was probably the cooks! But you are already driving home and don’t really do anything about it.
People like to cast blame, even that might not be the right phrase, but people like to *call out* the group on the front lines (note: in most cases. For instance in the military campaigns, when one side loses, people blame the generals and commanders, etc, not the privates on the front lines, and rightfully so).
In Business Intelligence, you are usually the “front line” to the business when it comes to reporting information and data. One of the roles of BI is to “deliver information to the business”. But then what happens when something is wrong with that information? People immediately blame the Business Intelligence group. It just seems to be human nature, just like blaming the waitress.
Now, don’t get me wrong, sometimes the problem might reside with the waitress, and then you would call her out on things, but you need to realize, your tip just doesn’t go to her. It gets split between her, the cook, the bus boys, the greeters, etc.
I hate playing any part of the “blame game”, but sometimes people should think through what they are actually “blaming” and make sure it just isn’t calling out the front lines because that is what is easiest.
I’m not sure that Business Intelligence will ever fully get around taking most of the up front hits when something goes wrong with data, or with a reporting server, or with anything that might be outside of its control, but what Business Intelligence groups should strive for is to be accountable for things within its control, such as finding problems before the business does, handling data integrity issues with ease, making ETL’s more fault tolerant, getting and handling server alerts for jobs and processes that it is in charge of, etc, etc.
Just try to remember the next time your food is cold at the restaurant, try not to blame the waitress 🙂
Steve Novoselac's Blog 
5 replies on “Blaming the Waitress”
“But then you start to think about it, and you look back and realize that hey, it wasn’t the waitress who caused the issue, it was probably the cooks!”I know 95% of the time WHO is at fault. A lot of times it's obvious mistakes that they bring to the table. If you can see something is wrong with your food without having to TOUCH anything and your server brought you the food, how can you blame the kitchen staff?Servers have lots of control over most food issues in general. I didn't say all, but MOST.My husband and I have had servers that have put in the order wrong into the computer by actually admitting fault.At times, we have gotten the completely wrong food delivered from our own servers. One time, it was a waiter that had brought out another party's entrĂ©es as well as ours. I think they were a table of 4 at the most, while we were only 2. I SAW with my OWN TWO EYES he handed out food without verifying WHICH table had what. He put in front of my husband fried shrimp w/fries when he ordered crawfish au gratin w/baked potato. Turns out, our waiter admitted he didn't grab the correct entrĂ©e from the kitchen. So he was LAZY on 2 instances, not just one. He didn't verify the food with TWO opportunities to. That wasn't the kitchen staff's fault. They made the correct food, because it was fixed immediately, but the fact is, the waiter didn't make mistakes, he didn't TRY HIS BEST!! He was LAZY!! He was too lazy to compare the written orders to the food and then compare the plates of food to which table had what BEFORE delivering them.I would say, most of the time when your food is OBVIOUSLY wrong(missing items, wrong items, or just anything that you don't have to touch to notice the mistake) if it's your server bringing you your food, it's because they didn't actually TRY THEIR BEST!! When a server brings out food, they need to verify the plate of food with the written order. If it's another server that takes the food out, they need to compare the ticket to the food. If the ticket isn't correct, that's the original server's fault.Most of the time, DUH mistakes come to the table that could be prevented, but usually don't due to lazy servers that don't TRY THEIR BEST!!”Just try to remember the next time your food is cold at the restaurant, try not to blame the waitress :)”It can be the server's fault if they are playing around or cleaning up instead of delivering hot food. I agree that MOST of the time it's that the kitchen staff didn't warm up the food enough or made some dishes too early for a party that another person's food in the same party took a long time which made the food that took less time get cold by the minute it sits.”your tip just doesn’t go to her. It gets split between her, the cook, the bus boys, the greeters, etc.”Actually, most places don't share tips with cooks. Most restaurants have servers tip out bartenders, hostess/host, bussers, and sometimes food runners if there are any or sometimes expos. The cooks don't usually get any of the tip. Also, when we tip servers, we are tipping OUR SERVER. OUR SERVERS TIP OUT THE OTHER STAFF MEMBERS, NOT US CUSTOMERS!!Most of the time, customers know who is at fault and who isn't. The LAST person to see the food is at fault if they are the person that took the order for anything that you don't have to TOUCH the food to notice the mistake. If I am missing the ranch I asked for, that's on my server REGARDLESS of WHO brings out my food, because that can be offered to bring out ahead of time to avoid anyone forgetting. If I am missing a side dish or a wrong side dish, that's on my server if they brought me my food. If I ordered bbq sauce “ON THE SIDE”, none of the ribs, but you bring me ribs with bbq sauce on them, that is YOUR FAULT if you are my server for wasting my time bringing me obviously wrongly prepared food that you don't have to TOUCH a thing to notice the mistake.MOST OF THE TIME IT IS YOUR SERVER TO BLAME AND THAT IS THE GOD'S TRUTH!!
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nice post with an apt title =)
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Thank God I don't have to wait on Springs1 and her husband, my goodness she wrote a BOOK in the comment section, lol! God bless!
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Would love to see you wait 12 tables for one shift, Springs1. Would LOVE it.
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nope.
“Would love to see you wait 12 tables for one shift, Springs1. Would LOVE it.”
That’s fine, because I would WRITE EVERY SINGLE THING DOWN. I would love to see you as a customer get the wrong food 2 times in a row and not be pissed off. I would love to see you wait an hour for your food while everyone else has eaten and getting dessert now, but you haven’t eaten your entrĂ©e yet.
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